movingparts

Edward Carson, Edward John Carson

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780228016663
• eBook ISBN:
  9780228017509
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Canadian Poetry
• Index: Literature

the body / knows what / it truly / wants yet / the mind / wavers all

In Edward Carson's provocative new work, the poetic moving parts of movingparts confront and breathe new life into what's true and what's not in Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Crow," as well as the shifting, often fragmentary ground between what's said and what's not about identity and intimacy in Sappho's lyrics.

Reflecting the moment-to-moment ways our minds think, these poems take us from a creative process of disconnection and reassembly to a sonic pacing of words arising out of their stillness on the page. A flair for syntactical compression is found throughout, balanced by a capricious yet transforming diction, what John Ashbery described as seeking to stretch "the bond between language and communication." Calling witness to the narratives of history while pivoting their reach forward to the present, the rhythms, allusions, and resulting outcomes of Carson's use of language expand both narrative and discovery.

movingparts is brought full circle when an unexpected historical connection between Sappho and Aesop is revealed, hinting that what is true or false in the past or present of our lives can arrive at an intimacy with and illumination of more than we imagine.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• CAVEAT
• COUNTERPARTS (fox & friend)
• THE FOX AND THE CROW
• 1 (IN WHICH BOTH OLD AND NEW APPEAR TO BE UNRULY)
• 2 (IN WHICH FAST-MOVING MINDS ALL -AFLUTTER REASON TOGETHER)
• 3 (IN WHICH THE TONGUE UNFURLS IN A -HURRIED SUCCESSION)
• 4 (IN WHICH STORIES ARE STARTLED INTO LIFE LIKE DETONATIONS)
• 5 (IN WHICH OPPOSITES ATTRACT AND -COUNTERPARTS QUARREL)
• 6 (IN WHICH THE ARC OF THE TALE EVOLVES THEN MOVES ON)
• 7 (IN WHICH ALL ASYMMETRICAL PARTS ARE PARTLY UNKNOWN)
• 8 (IN WHICH THE PURSUIT BECOMES A -CONCEIT OF POSSIBILITY)
• 9 (IN WHICH THINKING AND THOUGHTS ARE NOT EVER TOGETHER)
• 10 (IN WHICH THE PERSISTENCE OF -DETECTION IS UNSUCCESSFUL)
• 11 (IN WHICH THE HUBBUB OF VERB IS A CLAMOUR AND BUZZ)
• 12 (IN WHICH ONE THOUGHT MIDDLEMOST SLIPS INTO ANOTHER)
• 13 (IN WHICH PARTS OF A JOURNEY ARE -ODYSSEYS OF ABSOLUTE)
• 14 (IN WHICH A PRESENCE IS LARGELY -CONTINUOUS UNTIL IT’S NOT)
• 15 (IN WHICH A VOICE OF BELIEF IS LEFT TO ITS OWN DEVICES)
• 16 (IN WHICH MOMENTARY MOTION IS -EMBEDDED IN A BODY)
• PRIMARYPARTS (desire memory anatomy)
• PRELUDE: THE FORM OF A MOTION
• MY TONGUE FLIES AWAY
• IN OUR EVERY CELL / A TINY ALPHABET
• WITH MY EYES / SHUT
• HE SLIDES HIS HAND UP HER LEG
• FACES / GRINNING FROM THE DARK
• PARADISE CAUGHT IN THE EAR
• THE MIND IN THE ACT
• THE BIT OF SEEDCAKE OUT OF MY MOUTH
• HOW MY LOVER’S SKIN SMELT OF IT
• A BODY HAS / TO BE A BODY
• A SWEET HAND RIGHT NOW
• BRUSHED WITH HIS THUMB THE NUT OF HER NIPPLE
• IS THERE A WOMAN IN THIS TEXT
• MISSINGPARTS(decomposing Sappho)
• APHRODITE OF THE SPANGLED MIND
• IF EVER BEFORE / YOU CAUGHT MY VOICEFAR OFF
• FINE BIRDS BROUGHT YOU
• QUICK SPARROWS OVERTHE BLACK EARTH
• IF SHE DOES NOT LOVE, SOONSHE WILL LOVE
• TO TELL / TONGUE / TO TELL TALES
• WHOEVER HE IS WHO OPPOSITE YOU /SITS AND LISTENS
• CLOSE / TO YOUR SWEET SPEAKING
• NO SPEAKING / IS LEFT IN ME
• YOU BURN ME
• MY / MIND LIKE A MOUNTAINWIND FALLING
• TWO STATES OF MIND IN ME
• HAVING BEEN BREATHED OUT
• CLEARSOUNDING
• SWEETWORDED DESIRES
• SAPPHO, WHY
• YOU WOULD LET LOOSE YOUR LONGING
• SHE BITES HER TENDER MIND
• NEITHER FOR ME HONEY NOR THE HONEY BEE
• TRANSPARENT DRESS
• TO GUARD AGAINST A VAINLY BARKING TONGUE
• YOU WILL GO YOUR WAY AMONGDIM SHAPES
• MY THINKING / NOT THUS / IS ARRANGED
• NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS